It is of the utmost importance that during a disastrous situation, such as a fire or toxic chemical leak, that a person caught in the disaster will have access to a protective breathing device that will provide adequate protection from smoke, gases, fumes, or other contaminants for an amount of time necessary to escape the disaster.
Smoke protective hoods have been provided for the protection of wearers from dangerous conditions such as smoke inhalation. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,023 to Pinson describes a hood for protecting the wearer from poisonous fumes and the like including a respirator having a portion arranged to be gripped in the mouth of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,636 to De La Pena describes a heat and smoke protective hood that comprises a bag-like head covering having a filter and a skirt extending about the covering.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,408 to Singer describes a head covering having a face mask portion and a rear portion which surrounds the head of the wearer for exclusion of bacteria while retaining air permeability.
Though previous protective breathing devices may provide protection from the material against which protection is required, it is important that any filter pad or other filtering mechanism within the protective devices work efficiently in filtering contaminants. Further, it is important that protective devices can be efficiently stored and readily accessed by the user in his time of need.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved filter pad.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a filter pad that provides a wearer with breathable air.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved protective hood.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective hood that is efficiently stored.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective hood that is readily accessed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective hood that provides breathable air to a wearer when contaminants are present in the local environment.